Once upon a time there was... Twice-Baked Potatoes

Last week when we shared our recipe for Scalloped Potatoes, we got a little carried away talking about all the ways to combine potatoes and cheese. The first thing that popped into our heads was Twice-Baked Potatoes. Mooooo. (That's what cows say instead of ooooo. And all the time really.)

This is another recipe that our fancy food processor revolutionized. We used to have to spend a very long time shredded lots of cheese, but now we put it in the top and hit the button and have a giant bowl of perfectly shredded cheese. We probably end up with more cheese in our potatoes this way, since hand shredded tends to lead to lots of eating along the way....

Even with the revolutionary technology of the food processor, this recipe is a nearly 2 hour process. Don't let this scare you! It's easy! But maybe save it for a weekend night.

The Castle Farm recipe does not contain bacon, since Cornelius objects. In fact, the original source at All Recipes includes bacon. So, if you want to add bacon to yours, I won't tell.

Once upon a time there was... Scalloped Potatoes

You might notice a little bit of a theme this week. CHEESE.

We highly recommend putting cheese on as many things as possible. Potatoes, of course, are one of the best pairings for cheese. Twice-baked potatoes, cheese fries, cheesy mashed potatoes... there are so many possibilities when it comes to mixing cheese and potatoes. Today, we will show you how to make just one of them: scalloped potatoes.

Once upon a time there was... Creamy and Lemony Potato Salad

As Snowmageddon 2010 approached, we started to plan ahead for the food we would eat over the weekend. Normally, we would have set up some sort of extravaganza. However, there were two problems: first, there was nothing left in any grocery store in the entire region, and second, we thought we might lose power at some point. Remember, this is Snowmageddon - 2 feet or more of wet, heavy snow.

So, what can you find at a barren grocery store and also eat cold? Potatoes!

We decided to make a quick potato salad, adapting a recipe from our trusty Good Housekeeping cookbook. Here is what you need:

makes 10 side servings

Ingredients
3 pounds of potato (we scaled the recipe down but will give you the full one. Also, the recipe calls for normal baking potatoes, but as you can see we used a mix of small red and yellow potatoes for variety)
1/4 cup of mayonnaise
1/4 cup of milk
3 tbsp lemon juice (if you don't want lemon, omit the peel and replace the juice with 2 Tbsp distilled white vinegar)

1 tsp lemon peel
2 tbsp green onion
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

ground pepper to taste
chopped celery (optional; we didn't have any)

Instructions

1. Put the potatoes in a pot, cover with water, and bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer and cook 20-25 minutes, until potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork or knife.

2. Drain the potatoes, let cool. Chop, dice, or slice the potatoes to your desired size. We made a variety of cuts in our small potatoes. Cal always says, variety is the spice of life. (Optional: peel before cutting. We like potato skins, especially the red ones, so we left them this time.)

3. Whisk together the milk, mayo, lemon juice (or vinegar), lemon peel, green onion, salt, sugar, and pepper.

4. Add the potatoes, toss to coat.

5. Optional step: if you want a chunkier potato salad, you are done. That's what Cal wanted, but I decided to MASH MASH MASH the potatoes for a creamier potato salad. Find your favorite utensils and smash away!

6. Serve chilled - perhaps in a powerless apartment during a snowstorm!

Here's the nutritional info. Keep in mind that different types of mayo and milk will lead to very different results. We used 1% milk and Helman's reduced fat mayo.

Pig, out!

Once upon a time there was... Potato and Cilantro Soup

The pig is always skeptical of soup, but I insisted on this one, and I am glad that I did! It was creamy and flavorful. Paired with a salad, it makes a perfect dinner.

We found this recipe at iChef and followed it exactly since we are not the most experienced soup makers.

serves 6

ingredients

1 Tbsp butter (we used Promise)

1 leek, diced

1/2 onion, diced

5 c chicken stock

2 med russet potatoes, diced

1 bunch of cilantro leaves, chopped

Cal's tip: we may have used way too much cilantro since bunches can be all different sizes. If you have too much cilantro, it will still be delicious so don't worry about it! As you can see from the pictures of Cornelius, preparing cilantro can take some time!

1/4 c heavy cream

salt and pepper to taste

instructions

1. melt butter in a large stock pot. add onion and leek and let them sweat but not brown.

2. add stock and potatoes. bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender (about 20 minutes, but depends on the size of your dice).

3. add cilantro, remove from heat.

4. carefully puree the soup in a blender or processor in batches.

Cal's tip: You may need to wait for the soup to cool slightly. You should also make your batches fairly small or you will make a giant mess.

5. Add soup back to the pot and bring to a simmer. Add cream. Heat through. Season with salt and pepper.

Soup is hard to photograph but it's easy to eat! We recommend eating it instead of trying to take pictures.

Look how healthy it is! As long as you use low-sodium chicken stock the sodium won't be so high either.

Overall this soup was a success and has hopefully led to the pig being more accepting of future soups!

Moo!

Once upon a time there was... Leftover Mashed Potato Pancakes

Last year for thanksgiving we made 8 lbs of mashed potatoes. In case you were wondering, that is a LOT of mashed potatoes. As a result, we had a LOT of leftover mashed potatoes. While we really enjoy mashed potatoes there are only so many different ways to dress them up and after a few nights you stop enjoying them. Since we had hit that point, we looked up a recipe for leftover mashed potato pancakes. We liked them so much, we made them again post-thanksgiving this year. We found this recipe at MrBreakfast.com although we object to categorizing them as breakfast.

ingredients

2 c mashed potatoes

1 large egg, beaten

6 Tbsp flour

2 Tbsp grated onion

2 Tbsp dried chives

salt and pepper

vegetable oil for frying

instructions

1. Heat 1/8 inch of oil over med-high heat until it is hot but not smoking.

2. combine potato and egg. stir in flour, onion, chives, and salt and pepper.

3. Add heaping tablespoons of the potato mixture to the fry pan. Flatten them with the back of your spatula. Cook about a minute on each side (until golden brown).

4. Put pancakes on paper towels to drain excess oil. Serve with applesauce or sour cream.

Moo!

Once upon a time there was... Mashed Potatoes

Freshly mashed potatoes are such an easy food to make. Despite this, we admit that there are many times we use the mashed potatoes in a box. Basic mashed potatoes are always some variation of potato, butter, and milk. I prefer to use a butter substitute and our regular 1% milk, while the pig prefers to go all out and use real butter and half-and-half. Of course whatever you pick is going to affect the richness of your end potato product. But trust me, fresh mashed potatoes will always taste better than the box variety - especially when they are made by a pig and a cow.

ingredients (for 4 servings)

2 lbs potatoes (russet or your choice)

4 Tbsp butter

1/2 milk or half-and-half

instructions

1. prep your potatoes. line em up. peel em. and cut em into chunks (1" is recommended, but you can make them smaller or larger if that's what you like). If making a double-batch and small dice like we were, this can be exhausting work.

2. put potatoes in a pot of cold water and salt. bring the water to a boil, then lower the heat, and let simmer until potatoes are tender (about 20 minutes).

3. drain potatoes and then put them back in the pot. let them steam dry.

4. once dry, but still pretty hot, beat in the butter.

5. beat in the milk/cream product.

6. whisk vigorously until fluffy (or beat lightly until blended, whatever texture you prefer). season with salt and pepper, eat!

Moo!